•28 October, 2008 • Comments Off on Welcome to the official website for Orlando Gibson

‘Orlando Gibson speaks’ is a weekly magazine website

This site offers a sometimes humorous, but always thought provoking look at the news of today, and the issues of tomorrow, across the world

The magazine, like myself, has relocated to Australia, where I will to give you an insight into the flavour of a life ‘down under’. However contributors to the magazine are worldwide giving this site a broad international prospective.

So grab a drink, settle back into your chair and enjoy this regularly updated site.

If any of the topics are of particular interest to you, bookmark my site and call again.

Feel free to sign the guest book

If you have an article, an essay, a rant, or even if you want to respond to any of the articles published in this magazine, then send it to me and I will publish it

Contact me at the usual email address

Enjoy

All articles, editorials, and commentary on this site are the copyright of Orlando Gibson.

Reproduction of any part of the website must first have the permission of Orlando Gibson.

For those who are going through the painful process executing a will in Barbados, here are a few notes on what to look out for.

Once the will has been read, instruct the solicitor to make the announcements in the media immediately.

Two announcements need to go into the media over fourteen days.

Nothing can proceed without these announcements so it is best to get them out the way first.

Next the solicitor will have to carry out a search of the estate’s assets. This is where the solicitor writes to all the banks and financial institutions to find out whether the deceased has any holdings in those institutions. You may be asked to pursue other institutions such as pensions, life insurance and others.

It can take financial and other institutions up to a month to get back to you with information.

You may be asked to send originals of death certificates to some institutions, so be sure to send them via registered post and insist that they are returned to you in the same manner.

Once all of the assets of the estate have been accounted, you will be asked to go into the Magistrate’s court and sign an affidavit in front of the court officials.

This is not the will going into probate.

The solicitor then needs to collate all the information gathered and the legal clerk will then submit the will into probate.

It is important that all information has been submitted otherwise the probate will not begin until all the papers are with the court.

Check with you solicitor that all the paperwork is submitted and, if possible, ask for written or pictorial verification of the fact that the will is now in probate.

The Justice Minister in Barbados has determined that the clerks should take no longer that two weeks to process a Will, however if you know Barbados, you will only now have finished laughing at this sentence. In practice mine took two months, and I am told that the Magistrate’s clerk went on holiday so all work stopped. I would expect that with the right persistence from you solicitor’s clerk the Will should be approved by the court within a month.

Once the Will is approved by the Magistrate’s court, it comes out of probate and the executor will be issued with the ‘Letter of Testimonial’ more commonly known as ‘Letter of Administration’ within ten days.

Once the Executor has received the Letter of Administration they will be able to access the assets of the estate and distribute in accordance to the Will.

The four main banks act very differently when distributing funds of the diseased.

In all cases you will need to present:

the death certificate,

Letter of Administration,

Your ID card (not driver’s licence or other government id)

Passport as secondary id

(Additional information may be required as explained later)

If your name is on the account, then in all cases you will be able to transfer the money into your own account.

If the deceased was with Royal Bank of Canada or Soctibank, you will be able to transfer the money into an account of your choosing either as an account transfer, a third party bank transfer, a wire transfer to a foreign bank, or a banker’s cheque.

If the deceased was with the CIBC First Caribbean Bank, they are forced to follow the legal laws of Trinidad, and as a result you will have to set up a new account titled ‘The estate of [the deceased] c/o [the executor]’. This wording is very precise, as the money can only be transferred or cheque written to this account from the decease’s account.

If the executor is fortunate to have an account with CIBC, then they will use the existing details of there account to set up the new account. This is very useful if the executor is not a resident in Barbados as it reduces the number or items documents required for verification.

If the deceased was with Republic Bank and the executor’s name is not also on the account, you are shit out of luck.

In addition to the requirements for CIBC, you will not be able to use your existing accounts with Republic Bank as part verification of identity. You will need to provide all new information as if you were a new customer.

If the executor can not demonstrate an income, they will not be able to open an account with Republic Bank.

If the executor is not resident in Barbados, they will have to provide additional proof of id, and residence from their country of habitat. All documents will have to be notarised and originals, no scans or copies, all delivered in person.

If there is property involved, it will need to be surveyed by a surveyor and the plans submitted to the Town and Country Planning office.

Surveying three acres of land should take no more than five days. The plans should be into Town and Country Planning no more than a week after that.

The plans will then be reviewed, and presuming there are no issues the plans are approved and issued with a certificate of compliance.

Your solicitor will need the specifications on the plans in order to draw up the final deeds.

Once you have the Certificate of Compliance from the Land Registry your solicitor will review and finallise the Assents. He will then submit Assents to executor via courier for signatures. Once returned the Assents are recorded before the Final assents is deliver to executor.

Final tips

You will need to keep on at your solicitor. They will try to stretch out the work for anything up to two years, with no proper explanations of conceivable reasons given.

Ask for constant updates, and set acceptable milestones. If these are not reached, ask for proper explanations.

If you are unhappy with the work of your solicitor do not be afraid to change solicitors. Always have a back up solicitor on hand so that if you are unhappy with the service of one, you can switch to the backup without loss of momentum.

Where possible become a signatory on the account of the person before they are deceased.

If you know that you are going to be the executor of a parent of partner, get them to put you on the account before they die. This will make accessing their funds easier in the long run.

If your name is not on the account, it is a crime to steal money from a deceases account via ATM or other means, when there are other beneficiaries to those funds.

If you as the executor and know that land will be included in a Will, get the land surveyed and have the plans registered with Town and Country Planning before the person dies. This does not mean that ownership changes hands, but it does speed up the process when you have to execute the Will, and rules out any compliance issues early which may cause delays.

Kuala Lumpur is a city is good now, and will be great when it is finished.

It reminds me of Singapore back in the late nineties, where there is a lot of massive shopping centres and malls with expensive and affordable shops surrounded by building work.

From the airport, pick ip a travel card. Which will cost you 12.50rm empty. You can get them from ‘MyNews’ shops or other news agents and they can be used on all lines.

There does not appear to be a saving, especially as you have to buy the card, but it is more convenient that trying to find the right change for the buses, monorails, and trains that you will be taking around the city.

Be sure to pick up a free Transit Rail map to work out the closes stations when getting around town.

It will cost you 55rm one way to get the RapidExpress into KL Central, or less than half that if you get the commuter train.

The distance between attractions in Kuala Lumpur is not that great, and in the relative 23 degree cool of the evening, you will find it a pleasant way to get your steps up, however in the 31 degree heat, and 90% humidity, a 30 minute walk will leave you drenched in sweat and unnecessarily irritated, when you could have got the bus, monorail, or train for 2rm.

There are a lot of stairs and steps that make the city a little for difficult to access if you are week in the knees or wheelchair bound.

Train stations will require wheelchairs to be man-handled in order to get up and down stairs to the platforms, and even stepping off the curb will be difficult for the less able bodied.

We had three days:

Day 1 we arrived at the hotel at 08.00, dropped off our bags and went straight to the Batu Caves. The journey is 1.5hours by train and the caves open at 10.00, lunch at 13.00 and closes at 16.00.

The caves are free but not for the faint of heart, as there is a 272 step climb to the entrance of the cave. There are other paid attractions around the caves including a side ‘dark’ cave in which a guide shows you the spiders, bats and other creatures that live in the caves.

Be aware that there are monkeys all over the cave They are relatively tame and will eat from your hands and steal from your open bags, but they are still wild animals.

You will spend a couple of hours at the caves before starting back.

It is safe to eat in the local cafes and restaurants that you will see on the roadside. Most of the menus are in English and the food is a fusion of dishes and spices found in the region and reflecting the wide variety of people that live in Kuala Lumpur.

After lunch, a dip in the pool and some duty free bubbles, we headed out for the evening to Marini’s on 57 to enjoy drinks at this rooftop bar located next to the Petronas Towers.

From there we went to the Bukit Bintang region to eat cheap food and soak in the nigh life. We went to Lot 10 hutong, but you could just as easily go to Jalan Alor food night market for great food.

We spent our money on the experience of fancy bars and cocktails, rather than restaurants because the local food is excellent, cheap, and great value for money.

From there we went to The Rum Bar KL for a cheeky night cap before a gental stroll back to the monorail.

Day 2, we got up and headed to the SkyBox at KL Tower. There is a shuttle bus that takes you from the entrance to the base of the tower. You pay 99rm each to and ride the lift to the outside skybox.

There are two skyboxes and a bar at the top and you are invited to take your time and enjoy the view in surprising tranquillity.

Once you have had enough you can proceed down to the observation deck which is enclosed and muck more of a tourist trap.

From there we got the bus to the Central Market / Petaling Street area where we were tempted by the fake watches, wallets clothing and bags of Petaling street, as well as more original gifts of Central Market.

After a late lunch we went back to the hotel to enjoy the pool, and our duty free before heading out for the evening.

For dinner we went to Suk Yuen Cantonese restaurant opposite Pudu station, reportedly the oldest Chinese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, where we signed and explained to the staff with limited English, to match my limited Chinese, a delightful cheap and delightful meal.

Day 3 we went to Bangsar where we explored the far West of the Kuala Lumpur. It is not easy to get to by public transport but is a reasonable destination if you are into outlet shopping and fancy places for brunch. The are also comes alive more at night.

We took the buss back to Central Market from Bangsar going through Little India on the way.

That evening we went on a ‘roof top bar crawl’ heading first to Heli Bar. This is a helipad that turns into a bar in the afternoon/evening. This was by far the most exposed roof top bar that we went to and was a great place to watch the sunset.

From there we walked up to Luna Bar opposite KL Tower. This is much more of a bar for the young at heart, if not in body.

The bar is situated around the hotel swimming pool which is frequented by people in their twenties. Loud music and pool tricks to show off to the opposite sex are the orders for the evening, but the view is good and the drinks are reasonable.

From there we headed to Elysium, which is a very sophisticated bar with a more refined atmosphere, but with less of a view from the rooftop.

By now it was 22.00 so we wandered down into Jalan Alor for tasty street food before a gentle walk back to the hotel to conclude our trip.

We caught a ‘Grab’ car in the morning to the airport which cost 75rm in total including tolls which took 45 minutes at 6.45.

The express train would have cost 55rm each. The express trains start at 05.00 in the morning but the monorail to get to KL Central starts at 06.00.

It will allow you to find locations, suggest routes, and direct you to locations without the need for international roaming, or access to mobile data.

When booking your accommodation, check that there are no building works or renovations planned for your residence or the adjoining properties. If so, ensure that they price the accommodation accordingly, or compensate you in other ways.

Spirits are taxed very heavily in Bali up to 300%, and so finding affordable cocktails or spirits in Bali or Indonesia can be difficult.

Duty Free Alcohol when entering Bali or Indonesia is limited to the 1 Litre of Spirits & Liqueurs, Champagne, Sparkling, wine or other alcoholic beverages per person. If you have a 1.25L bottle you can normally get away with this as well. Good Wine in Bali can be really hard to find especially at decent prices, where as most popular spirits can be found in most stores.

If your more of a wine person consider bringing your own Duty Free Wine. It is cheaper to buy your Alcohol (except beer) before entering Bali/Indonesia, and if your heading to Australia from Bali it can be cheaper to buy Duty free in Bali DPS Airport before you leave.

You should never go anywhere without local currency, however I would suggest that you only get a small amount before you arrive. There are a number of reputable money changers in Seminyak and the exchange rates are considerably better locally and without commission.

However, check the rate that is advertised is the rate that you are getting; ensure that the teller counts the money out and then steps away from the money, allowing you to pick it up yourself to count it; watch for the slight of hand as they count out your money; watch for slight of hand as they replace your money with damaged or torn money; and watch out for different rates for different denominations of currency.

When you exit the airport, you will be confronted with taxi drivers wanting to take you to your destination. If you choose to use one of these drivers it is important to arrange the price before beginning your journey with them.

The journey from the airport should cost no more than 175,000 rupees as an upper limit normally charged by hotels. Return journeys should be considerably less, and should be negotiated in the hours before your departure for the airport.

The journey to and from the airport under normal circumstances should take about 20 minutes, however the government is building an underpass at a critical junction near the airport, and it now takes from forty-five minutes, up to an hour and a half. These roadworks are likely to take up to one year to complete, at the time of this article.

Blue-bird taxis are the official metered taxis, and if you wish to avoid bartering, you should take one of these, however be aware of other taxis that also paint their cars blue that do not have a meter. If you use an unmetered taxi, be sure to negotiate a price prior to setting out.

There is a public bus service that runs every half an hour from Seminyak Square that will take you to a number of locations. Prices for each one way ticket on various lines that go to and from a main hub, vary from 20,000 to 50,000 rupees.

None of the prices advertised in shops, bars, massage parlours and restaurants include the 15% government tax and 5% service charge. You should always consider these additional amounts when gauging the price of your purchase.

Seminyak is not cheap. Cocktails are around 100,000 rupees and Bingtang beer is between 25,000 and 45,000, Fanta is 10,000, Crisps are between 17,000 and 35,000, Breakfast menus are around 90,000, 450 grams of pork ribs is 175,000, and a whole roasted pig is 2.7million. Massages are very reasonably priced and can cost 100,000 rupees for one hour.

Always check that the amount that you are being charged for drinks, meals and goods, are the same amount that are being advertised on the menu.

You should budget for about $50 per day between food, drinks, activities and taxis.

If you wish to hire a van to take you to Jimbaran, wait for 5 hours while you enjoy the beach and get some seafood and bring you back, this will cost between 250,000 and 300,000 rupees.

Work under the assumption that all prices are suggestions and that negotiations are a part of everyday business.

A lot of plastic rubbish washes up on the beaches of Seminyak, so you will see groups of volunteers clearing the beaches as you go for your morning walk.

The beach has no shade and the sun and humidity become oppressive after 09.00am, so get your morning exercise in early, or wait until the sun goes down in the evening.

There are a lot of stray dogs on the beach and roads. Generally they are harmless, however they can turn aggressive very quickly, so either walk with a stick on the beach or back away very slowly maintaining eye contact if you are confronted.

If you are unfortunate enough to get sick and require medical or hospital attention, there are a few things of which you should be aware.

Always have the details of your travel medical insurance provider about your person, either in your phone, purse or wallet.

No hospital or medical facility will admit you without knowing how the bill will be paid. Often you will be required to provide a credit card until you can identify your travel medical insurance provider and the coverage it provides.

Know your excess liability on your policy and ensure that is the only amount that you pay when you are being discharged.

Hospitals have been known to say that your medical insurance only covers so much of the treatment, and that you have to pay as much as an additional $2500. This is where having your medical insurance provider on speed dial is useful, to clarify any misunderstandings.

Even once the correct excess has been identified, look out for the further slight of hand, as your excess may be increased by $100 or more, due to exchange rate differences or administration costs. Stand your ground. The only out of pocket expense that you should pay is the exact amount of the excess on your policy.

When you are returning back at the airport, you must have access to your boarding pass in order to get into the check-in area. This can be electronic or paper, but the guards to the check-in area will require sight of the flight number, date and time of the flights, along with your name. This seems to be an increasing protocol across a lot of Asian countries.

It is best to download these before you get to the airport as wifi access at the airport dose not appear to cater for downloading boarding passes or emails.

These are 100ml liquid checks at the gates before boarding the plane throughout Asian airports so drink your water or throw it away, and ask about your duty free allocation coming in and leaving.

If you watch out for these pitfalls you will have a great time in Seminyak. The people are friendly and everyone is looking out for an opportunity.

8. Click the radio button next to the “Forward and Masking” option. Type a title for the WordPress site into the “Title” input box and add a description, if desired. Type keywords into the “Keyword” input box, if desired.

9. Click “OK.” The domain name is forwarded to the WordPress site, and the URL of the WordPress site is masked by the specified domain name.

Warning

The forwarding and masking process may take up to 48 hours to fully propagate through domain name servers.

The tides are higher than normal at 16.00hrs these days, and the beaches are looking more deserted.

I am trying to work out whether it is because the tide is high and therefore the beach tourists are trying to avoid getting wet, or whether there is a natural lull in the number of tourists to the island.

Either way I benefit, as I now regularly have the waters to myself, observed only by another die hard local who braves these now choppier waters.

As my time comes to a close I find myself reflecting on how I underestimated the impact of being a Black man, in a Black country.

Yes, Barbados is not immune to the ‘shades of Black’ colour politics, but at the end of the day, I have found myself much more relaxed in my surroundings.

I find that I do not factor in whether someone is being racist when treating be badly or well.

I find that when I am in a position where I might make others feel uncomfortable, I know that it is because it is dark, or I am man, and not because I am Black.

Being Black, has been one less thing that I have needed to take into consideration, when going about my daily life.

It is not the same as growing up in a multicultural London, because although we were of many cultures and fought to be seen as equals, we were still identified as being Black and therefore categorised in that London multicultural, tossed salad of a society.

Living in Australia will take some adjustment again, as it is a country that is only now learning to live with its Black people. Australia has a history of killing off, breeding out, or annexing their indigenous Black population, and is only now learning to deal with a new generation of local and immigrant Blacks.

Even amongst the Black population in Australia there is conflict as some indigenous leaders refuse to accept their Black British, West Indian, African, Afro American, Pacific Islander and other Black cousins as being Black. These leaders instead prefer to non indigenous Blacks as ‘Other’ as if they are the only Blacks in the world.

I often am forced to remind them that even though they are the oldest culture an attachment to the same land mass, this does not make them the oldest culture, and certainly not the first Blacks.

The question of how Black someone is does not appear to be one that is raised much in Barbados.

These questions have been replaced by more practical everyday questions of political corruption, poor customer service and a lack of pride in ones pursuits. Unfortunately the energy we have save not having to actively be black, has not been channelled into resolving these other now pressing issues.

“I do not understand why young people rebel. If young people just listen to their parents, they would learn all they need to know” Guess how. “Rebellion only takes place in one parent families, or families that are unstable. Rebellion only takes place when children / people listen to external voices and influences rather than internal voices.

“I disagree”, I disagreed “Where as there are some people who are easily influenced and led like sheep, there are some who are driven to rebellion internally. The whole concept of rebelling against your parents is a method of learning to challenge authority now so that you have the skills to challenge authority safely and with desired results in the real world.”

I then stumbled through some bad examples of my good point such as challenging decisions made by your boss at work, challenging politicians when they are corrupt and challenging governments when they no longer reflect our best interests.

Then from my cousins mouth came the reason for this article.

“If the slaves had not rebelled, they would not have been killed. If they had prayed, God would have resolved their problem. Look at General Bassa, if he had got on his knees and prayed for freedom rather than taking up arms and leading the rebellion in Barbados, he would have a testimony to give to the Lord, instead he died.”

I could not contain my frustration any further.

“So you are saying that slaves should have waited to be freed by God rather than fighting for their freedom. You would be content to sit on you knees praying with the whip being broken across your back waiting for divine intervention, while others fought and died for your freedom.”

“My duty is to my family”, he responded “My job is to protect them not rebel and cause trouble”.

I interjected “By rebelling you are protecting them. You are standing up for their rights and their place in society. Look at Moses, he rebelled by taking the slaves out of Egypt. Look at Martin Luther King, he rebelled as one of the leader of the civil rights movement.”

This statement now enraged my cousin who sat up from his relaxed posture to a more defensive poise.

“Now stop it Orlando” he insisted “I will not have you besmirching the name of Doctor King. The man was a leader not a rebel”.

“He was a rebel to the white governors, politicians and racists who did not want to see black people get equal rights or vote.” I exclaimed.

My cousin rubbed his head in dismay, refusing the thought of Doctor King being a rebel and not analysing what it meant to lead a civil rights group in the sixties in America under Jim Crow.

He shot back, “Next you will be defiling the name of the peaceful leader in South Africa, you know, whose name begins with M”.

“Do you mean Mandela?” I bellowed, now loosing all patience and no longer caring that I was a guest in my cousin’s home. “He was a rebel in its most violent definition. He was branded such by the British government when he bombed railway stations and government offices. He turned to peaceful protest when he was locked up for his crimes, crimes carried out to free South Africa from apartheid. You need to read a book. You need to read another book other than the bible and expand your historical and philosophical references”.

By this point I had lost my composure and had started responding to his passive not so subtle insults of, “If you had read your bible you would see…” with my own “if you had read more widely you would see…”

At several points of clarity I tried to move the conversation away from is Deus Ex agenda, but each time was dragged back into an ‘actions of man verses waiting for God’ conversation.

The hour grew late, and I said my farewells, even then dogging the well meant, but misjudged and misplaced comment from my cousin.

We should be left on better terms, we should have restrained our egos, but this is all too often where our debates take us.

Most days I walk down to the beach and I pass relatively newly developed houses on the lower plains of Maxwell.

Most people when building a house would leave the day to day construction of the house up to a site manager, however one new development has taken a different approach.

One development has the Indian owner onsite all day. He supervised as the foundation was being dug, and the sand being laid, he supervised as the walls were being measured and the steal and concrete being poured.

I even saw his rolling up his sleeves and carrying out final measurements while work took place around him.

I have no doubt that this has cut down on his waste and missing materials, as well as keeping the project on track.

If only everyone building a house could take the time off to supervise the building of the property in person.